The present invention relates generally to pedestals for protecting telecommunications equipment located in an outside environment. More specifically, the present invention relates to pedestals which protect telecommunications equipment from flood or high water conditions.
Telecommunications equipment including a primary cable loop, terminal blocks, and connections between the primary cable loop and the terminal blocks are commonly located out-of-plant or outside. Such basic telecommunications equipment is necessary in applications such as branching off from a primary cable to route telecommunications lines to various end points. Since such telecommunications equipment is located outside, a protective covering is required to protect the equipment from human interference as well as the environment. Therefore, the protective covering must provide structural as well as environmental protection.
Typically, a protective structure is produced in the form of a pedestal. The pedestal structure provides a sufficient volume in a minimum area and in a convenient working orientation for housing telecommunications equipment. A base assembly of the pedestal is recessed and secured in the ground and has a passageway to permit a cable to extend therethrough. The cable is covered by a cover portion which attaches to the base portion. The pedestal should have sufficient structural strength to resist minor impacts as well as other environmental conditions such as wind, snow accumulation or precipitation impact.
A problem arises with typical commercially available pedestals in that they do not protect the telecommunications equipment retained therein from flood water conditions. In other words, these pedestal arrangements do not protect the telecommunications equipment when water in the surrounding environment rises above the level of the telecommunications equipment retained inside of the pedestal. A reason for this problem is that the cover portions of many commercially available pedestals permit water to rise inside of their cover portions.
One form of commercially available pedestal is an assembly employing a thick walled rigid plastic tube. This assembly is referred to as the "PEDLOCK.RTM." produced by Coil Sales and Manufacturing Company, a Charles Industries Company, located in Rolling Meadows, Ill. The PEDLOCK.RTM. device simply uses a rigid PVC plastic tube to house the telecommunications equipment. The base portion of the pedestal is of a first diameter and the cover portion is of a second diameter which is greater than the base diameter. The cover portion telescopes over the base portion and locks thereon covering the telecommunications equipment projecting through the base portion. The cover portion tube is closed at one end to create a "bell jar" effect which traps a quantity of air therein as the water level rises, thus limiting the height to which water may rise therewithin and protecting the telecommunications equipment within the air bubble trapped inside.
While the PEDLOCK.RTM. device protects telecommunications equipment, such a device is not cost effective in many instances due to the expense of fabricating a sufficiently large and thick-walled plastic structure of a material such as PVC which has both the waterproof characteristics and the structural characteristics to serve as a telecommunications protection pedestal. Further, since the base portion is also a continuous tube formed of plastic it is difficult to thread a large multi-pair cable through the base which increases worker time and expense and also the risk of damage to the cable. Additionally, the all-plastic PEDLOCK.RTM. device requires a separate grounding assembly in order to provide the necessary ground circuits for the telecommunications equipment and lines retained therein. Finally, since the PEDLOCK.RTM. device is formed of a thick walled PVC plastic, if the device becomes damaged it can be quite expensive to replace the device.